Believe it or not, that\'s a question that can\'t be answered yes or no.
I had an extended back and forth with Alex Waldrop about the drug issue before I got involved with the Jockey Club group (which included Waldrop). At the time of our discussion, Alex \"preferred carrots to sticks\", which I told him would never work in this industry. One of the things that is interesting about the NTRA plan is that he has evidently come around on that.
The other is that the NTRA plan exists at all, and that it has been leaked. The Jockey Club group is coming out with their recommendations (or white paper or whatever they end up calling it) at their Round Table 8/9 at Saratoga. This sure looks like someone is trying to steal their thunder.
I was once in the Saratoga paddock with Elliot Walden when he gave instructions to Bailey for a horse I was involved with. He said, \"Ask him around the turn. In fact, you might have to tell him\". That\'s the situation here. The Jockey Club group set out with very serious intentions, but the the questions are a) whether they ended up trying to get a consensus, as opposed to focusing on their original result, and b) whether what they do will have teeth (telling instead of asking). I gave them two things they could do themselves to force tracks (which won\'t want to spend the money to solve the problem) into line, and I told them I was also willing to not sell data for and organize a player boycott of tracks that were not in compliance, focusing on one at a time.
We\'ll see what they do. One thing I do know is that the Jockey Club is going to go into more detail about specific drugs and testing procedures than the NTRA document does.
